How to Invest in LBE (Location-Based Entertainment) & Virtual Reality

This article was originally published at Altar of Gaming.

The fantastic thing about the approach of VR as an industry is that it is resembling you a fat land to plant your ideas in. When it comes to fulfilling one’s dreams and conducting experiments there is a need in contemporary solutions and thoughtful funds. For any VR experience being developed, it not enough just to be announced but adjusted to the perspective of the action.

VR prospects for 2027

Location-based entertainment (LBE) is the one attained the name of out-of-home entertainment. This tech has become the key part of VR that deserves special mention.

First, VR is about to reach $12, 324.7 Mn by 2027. Second, LB VR affords friends, families, colleagues to gather together and discover the full potential of headsets and tracking systems (sometimes stay in no need for the classical hand controllers like in case of Avatarico) outdoors. One more supporting point, LBE is a huge scope of experiences like theme parks, bowling centers, arcades, casinos, movie theaters, etc.

New horizons and investments in LB VR

(Photo: VRRoom (vroom.buzz): VR cinemas)

Audience and customer adaptation together with VR experiences creation appeared to be a bit slower than expected. The main catch, mobile, and in-home sales seem not so successful therefore inducing LBE to flourish.

If you are interested in what`s happening in this area now, you may be all out of its increasing prospects for the recent years and horizons having been broadened so far:

Sandbox VR received $68 million of funding from Andreesen Horowitz, Triplepoint Capital, and elsewhere.
Disney invested in The Void and direct their partnership at creating a hyper-reality experience based on the ‘Star Wars’ plot.
Zero Latency launched a VR arena in the MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel.
Nomadic got $6.5 million for the purpose to unveil LB retail games that provide players with tactile VR
HTC invested the revenues from Q4 2017 in companies being a part of Viveport Arcade Manager (the platform where VR developers can generate out-of-home experiences)
VR escape games leader Avatarico entered US, Canadian and Australian markets with Entermission as a distributor
IMAX started its campaign via opening a VR center in 2016 and reached 50 000 visitors for that year. But, unfortunately, the company exited VR business just 2 years later.

Modern VR business. Another step toward the future.

Someone may think of LBE as a temporary substitute. But, probably, enumerating all these facts is pretty enough to accept that location-based virtual reality is going to be trendy for the next few years for sure.

Being top-notch and brand-new, it seems like the number of LB VR experiences is growing enormously day by day whereas a game creation itself takes a lot of time. The area experience both successful practices and failures. Still, there is a reason to move forward and to consolidate knowledge about the contemporary VR market state, its demands, potential partners and franchises.

The recipe for a successful VR business is tough but tangible. You are to clarify the key mission of your future business (locations, content, target audience), current paths for development, emerging and finding the right partnership.

Here we`ll come to some strategies on how to make everything right when planning to start a venture:

you need to get the clear idea of how any VR content is developed (its stages, targets, time expenditures, etc.)
you are to be experienced in operations.
the next point is about revealing ways how to appeal to the audience (choosing a content, location, extra modality to enhance comfort while plunging into VR, etc.)
marketing working model and the ability of strategic thinking.
you need to discover a scalable system that will bring profit to your business and render best-known experiences.
remember if you`re about to provide high-end LBE you`ll need relevant hardware (VR headsets, sometimes backpacks, motion trackers and some room for players to be kept or get around.

Hopefully, these paths will come handy when choosing the best business plan to follow. In our next article, we will refer to the top of the most promising location-based entertainment companies and some prospects to collaborate with them.